Pierson High School Could Do Away With Class Rankings Next Year

The Pierson Middle-High School might soon do away with the class ranking system, following a larger nationwide trend of eliminating the practice.

The Shared Decision Making Committee in the Sag Harbor School District chose both class rank and dress code as areas of focus at the start of this year, and at the most recent Board of Education meeting, on Monday night, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Nichols shared with the board that the committee, made up of administrators, teachers, students, community members and parents, decided to revisit the topic of class rank.

Class rank was a hot-button issue 12 years ago, and whether to eliminate the system of ranking each individual in the class by academic performance was debated by the committee. After weighing the pros and cons at that time, the committee recommended staying with the class rank system because, at that time, many colleges and universities asked for that information as part of their application processes.

At the time, that consideration took precedence over the main objection to the class ranking system, which, as Nichols stated, “can create an overly competitive environment where kids are focused on where they stack up against their peers and not on learning.”

More than 10 years ago, most schools ranked their students, with only roughly 33 percent choosing not to rank, Nichols said. Now, that number has jumped to about a 50-50 split, largely based on the fact that many colleges and universities are not as concerned about a prospective student’s class rank as they were a decade ago.

Nichols added that most private schools no longer rank their students, and that doing away with class rank is even more common in smaller school districts like Sag Harbor.

He shared with the board that there was “unanimous support” among committee members to do away with class rank. “The idea is to still name a salutatorian and valedictorian but to let the transcript speak for itself,” he said.

Board Vice President Jordana Sobey said she likes the idea of getting rid of class rank if asked if other options were considered.

Brittany Carriero, the Middle-High School principal, said that other options, such as splitting the grade into percentiles or quartiles, can often be more harmful than rank to certain students who may fall just short of a certain threshold.

Nichols asked about the possibility of creating criteria for summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude designations for graduates, and Carriero said the idea was brought up in committee meetings but didn’t go very far.

Nichols encouraged the committee to have more dialogue on the subject and then bring a firm recommendation to the board before the end of the year, although he seemed to express his own support for doing away with class rankings.

“I would rather the kids focus on learning for its intrinsic value and be less concerned with gaming the system, so to speak, which we’re starting to see with kids making choices about courses as it relates to weighting,” he said.

Nichols added that a discussion on dress code and what the committee had looked at on that topic will come up at the next board meeting, set for June 10.

Public Hearing Slated for Repair Reserves

Also at the June 10 meeting, the district will hold a public hearing on a proposal to use money from its repair reserve fund to make repairs to walls and ceilings in the Sag Harbor Elementary School, including both normal wear and tear that needs to be addressed as well as water damage that occurred before the recent masonry repairs last year. The total cost would be $150,000, and would take place over the summer, at the same time as HVAC upgrades would take place, if approved by voters. The HVAC upgrade project is subject to voter approval as a proposal on the May 21 budget vote.

At the board meeting on June 24, district officials will present a long-range capital plan, particularly for the renovation of the high school gym, which is subject to board approval.